Eyes

I have been trying to get a good close-up of a lynx spider’s eye pattern, ironic that it followed after yesterday’s. If you compare, you can see a significant difference between the two sets of eyes. It is possible to tell the family of the spider just by looking at the eyes. This is useful, because even with a unique and strange new spider, you can at least find in which family to start your search for an ID. This particular family is oxyopes, the lynx spider.

Artificial Selection part 1 of 3

This text was inspired by a conversation with another blipper. It is meant to provoke an opinion and make you think about the direction that our species is heading. There will be a part two to follow tomorrow and a lot more disturbing than part 1.

Nature is a balance of species. There is no love or emotion in this balance. The balance is maintained by some species feeding on others. If the balance is disturbed by removing predator ‘A’, then its natural prey (B) will expand out of control, B’s prey will be exterminated or vegetation ravaged. This destruction will continue down the food chain like a chain reaction, until eventually a new balance is achieved.

When man's brain evolved, he became more successful and the human population exploded. In nature, he would have starved as his food ran out. Man would have reached a population balance. But the brain allowed man to solve the problem, by farming the food that he required.

Farming disturbs the balance; it cuts down forests for arable land, destroying the habitat of thousands of species that rely on the forest environment for their balance. If man became a 100% vegan, we would have to find a way to produce all that extra plant food. More land, more damage to nature. Veganism cannot sustain the entire human species and so has to be considered selfish and self-indulging by people who show little foresight and little concern for their fellow man. As for fruitarians – you silly people!

The current solution of farming animals for food is actually a very good solution, as it has the least impact on nature. The animals breeding rate is artificially increased and then balanced as food.

Natures balance will always happen, just like the natural selection of evolution. When we disturb that balance, a new balance will be established. This may well mean that thousands species become extinct, because they could not fit into the new balance. This is not a new thing. Species have been made extinct since life began. Life evolves, adapts or becomes extinct.

Now, man has grown beyond natural selection, with technology and medicine. It is now up to us to maintain natures balance artificially the best we can. This means controlling how much forest is destroyed for farming plants, animals and fish for our balance of requirements.

Like I said, probably the most efficient use of land is actually battery farming. Of course, you still have to grow the food to feed the animals. No one likes the idea of battery farming or chopping down forests or ravaging the herring shoals with finer nets or keeping fish in fish farms or any of the countless number of other artificial food production methods devised by man. BUT, if you are going to shout about it, you had better be prepared to pull the trigger on your fellow man.

FIVE BILLION PEOPLE need to be taken out of the food chain. Once this is achieved, the population has to be controlled and maintained. The only country on the planet tackling this problem is China, and what do we do – we whinge about invasion of civil rights. In actual fact, China have not gone far enough. Population maintenance is simply not enough, the human population must be reduced!

One day soon, every country on this planet will have to introduce a policy of selective procreation, to reduce the population to sustainable levels. It won’t happen tomorrow or next year, but it WILL happen, and it won’t be voluntary either. It is going to be ugly!

Nature does not concern itself with the feelings of plants and animals and neither should we. It is the balance that matters, NOT feelings.

Got something to say? Bring it on. No need to be too excellent, I’ve still got some thick skin left :)

Dave